Mistmaster wrote:I could either ignore or make an exception to the "only living sentient beings blood" rule for ravenloft vampire, maybe thanks the perduring blessing of the Blood Mother, which is still there because it plays in the hand of the Dark Powers, and I actually find that the idea of the blood rivers and lake does give the domain a disturbing and grotesque athmosphere; players who end in this domain will have interesting reactions. That said the idea of the illness is quite good, so I think I will fit it in the domain alongside the blood rivers and lake.
I would need to know more about the Blood Mother/ the religion of Lazendrak to comment with any real detail on her and her blessings (do you have info on her stored in some other thread/somewhere else?) but I think it would be a mistake to keep too much distance between humans and the vampires.
If the vampires only need to drink from the blood rivers/streams/wells than essentially they're just having a time share with the land's human occupants, which is neat, but not as dramatic as it could be...
Vampires have long been a short hand for sex/sensuality in horror stories, and I think it would be a mistake to "defang" them of that particular aspect.
If you want to unerve your players/PCs who wind up in Lazendrak... simply play the sensuality straight from a futuristic ultra libertine view point as opposed to the vastly more conservative approach in D&D in general and Ravenloft in particular.
Every general store sells bandages by the front counter, with a few special ones that are extra expensive but colored with attractive patterns and made from dyes that will not be ruined when they get soaked with blood.
People casually compliment one another on said bandages, (since just about everyone out of their teens is wearing some) and the PCs get distinct side eye for the fact that they won't be wearing bandages around their neck...
The first night that the PCs spend in the inn they're awakened by screams, which only after they've rushed out of their rooms (probably arming and armoring themselves to battle in the process) turn out to be the cries of passion from the inn's owner having his/her blood drunk by a vampire.
Marriages are complicated twisty affairs which involve not just person A marrying person B, but vampire X who regularly drinks person A's blood needs to get along with vampire Y who regularly drinks person B's, though there are also some vampires who play matchmaker and try to get two people whose blood they drink to hook up together.
There's no need to be graphic about it, but vamprisim and blood drinking should be relatively front and center with how life /business is conducted in Lazendrak, it shouldn't be long before at least one PC gets propositioned by an attractive vampire of appropriate gender.
This also possibly helps build/ could suggest another interesting angle on Bloodstrike's character, he's not just a vampire hunter who has wandered into the one domain in Ravenloft where vampires are actually a net positive and are unable to let go of his mindset/just go hunt vampires elsewhere... he's Shaw Moore from Footloose, he's Jeremiah Brown from Inherit the Wind, he's every religious figure ever who has looked out upon truly victimless crimes of people enjoying themselves through sensual acts of one sort or another and demands that it be stopped because it offends his sensibilities of how the world should be!
Also I might revise Bloodstrike's curse/the terms of his resurrection, 99% or so of the living people of Lazendrak get along fine with vampires, so there's no great significance to the act of beating all the sharp wooden points that could be used for stakes dull as a symbol to the end of the bigotry that makes him such a monster, because the bigotry didn't exist in Lazendrak until he brought it there and is more or less confined to him and his followers.
Maybe it should be something like he can only die for good if he's drowned in blood, as a symbolic act of making him commit the "crime" that he so hates vampires for?
I am interested interested in possibly doing a short Novella of my Monster Party series taking place in Lazendrak though if that is okay with you, you mention how people rely on vampires for protection against werewolves, how strong is anti-lycanthrope sentiment in Lazendrak were they just a useful example or do the people of Lazendrak hate werewolves with a passion not often seen outside of Verbrek?